Tag Archives: crows theatre

And so to September

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sept23The new season starts to ramp up in September.  My month will start at Factory Theatre on the 7th with Mary Beath Badian’s The Waltz; a coming of age drama set in Saskatchewan.  That runs until the 17th.  The following night there’s a screening at the Four Seasons Centre of Atom Egoyan’s new film Seven Veils that was created in conjunction with last season’s production of Salome.  A young woman is tasked with remounting her former mentor’s production of Salome.  It stars Amanda Seyfried, Ambur Braid, Michael Schade and Michael Kupfer-Radecky.  It’s a chance to see the film ahead of the official premier at TIFF.  More details and tickets here.

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May 2023

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wordcloudmay23Things happening next month…

But first this month… on April 27th to 29th male soprano Samuel Mariño is appearing with
Tafelmusik in a programme titled Higher Love: Virtuoso Arias.  Details here.

Crow’s Theatre has a couple of shows.  True Crime opens on the 2nd.  It’s a short run.  Preview on the 1st then closes on the 7th.  It’s basically a one man, semi-improvised show about an imprisoned con man.  The Chinese Lady, which runs 5th to 21st (previews 2nd to 4th) in the smaller Studio Theatre tells the story of the first Chinese woman in the USA.  Written by Lloyd Suh and directed by Marjorie Chan it should be interesting.  There’s also Boom X.  Rick Miller plays over a hundred characters to narrate events from 1969 t0 1995.  It runs from the 10th to the 28th.  More details at crowstheatre.com.

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Metamorphoses 2023

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Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s production of Metamorphoses 2023 opened last night at Crow’s Theatre.  It’s an 80 minute show, written and directed by Michele Smith, (with, it’s clear, a lot of input from the cast) taking various stories from Ovid.  Most of them involve women (or goddesses) revenging themselves on men for various failings ranging from being smug to violent rape.  It’s also very concerned with gender fluidity.  The principal narrator is Tiresias and along the way we also meet Hermaphorditus and Caenis.

1A7S03545-Dean Gilmour, Neena Jayarajan, Sukruti Tirupattur, Daniel R Henkel _ Rob Feetham

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Prodigal

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What do we mean by “forgiveness” or “redemption”?  Prodigal, written and directed by Paolo Santalucia currently being presented by the Howland Company at Crow’s Theatre asks us to consider just that.  It’s a curiously structured play.  On one level it’s a black comedy about a seriously dysfunctional elite family but there’s an intro to each act in which a preacher exegises on the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Parable of the Lost Sheep.  We are invited to compare the characters we are about to see with the dramatic personae of Christ’s teaching.  But are they really comparable?”

howlandprodigal-veronicahortiguela-meghanswaby-photobydahliakatz-1

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Fifteen Dogs

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I saw Marie Farsi’s adaptation for the stage of André Alexis novel Fifteen Dogs at Crow’s Theatre last night.  I read the book back in the fall and was impressed.  It’s a clever, witty, perceptive novel and I was very curious as to how it would translate to the stage; especial since most of the characters are dogs.  Bottom line, it works wonderfully well.

7.FifteenDogs_DahliaKatz_2637

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January 2023

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januarty wordcloudJanuary is looking quite promising on both the music and theatre front but there’s not a lot of opera…  Here’s what’s in my agenda.

January 11th to 14th the TSO have four performances of a concert that includes Mozart’s Requiem with a good looking line up of soloists.

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Electric Messiah – 2022 edition

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This was the seventh time I’ve seen Soundstream’s Electric Messiah.  It’s different every time of course but some things stay, more or less, as features.  The biggest change this year is the shift from the Drake Underground to Crow’s Theatre.  It’s staged as a conventional proscenium arch type show with the audience sitting in tiered rows facing the stage rather than being set up night club style.  There’s no bar in the actual performance space but you can still take a drink to your seat.  The drinks are cheaper than at the Drake too!

Electric Messiah

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Hannukwanzmas

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dec22wordcloudSo what’s on as we move into the holiday season?

Closing out November there’s Opera Revue at Castro’s this afternoon at 3pm and a couple of concerts on Wednesday.  At lunchtime Wirth Prize winner Elisabeth Saint-Gelais and collaborative pianist Louise Pelletier present an intriguing looking programme in the RBA then at 7.30pm at Mazzoleni Hall the RCM’s Rebanks fellows are performing.  Both are free but the Mazzoleni concert is ticketed and may be sold out.

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Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

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I guess when events are just too horrible to treat any differently one makes a comedy out of them.  The aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq certainly fits that category and Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, currently being performed by Modern Times Stage Company at the Streetcar Crowsnest, is as black a comedy as you will likely ever see.  It’s also very difficult to write about without major spoilers.

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Up next…

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More shows to enjoy…

  • hr_BengalTigerWebBannerOctober 11th to November 6th at Crow’s Theatre it’s Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.  “During the chaos of the 2003 American occupation of Iraq the lives of two American marines intersect with an Iraqi gardener as they search through the rubble of war for friendship, redemption, and a toilet seat made of gold.”
  • Jarrousky1October 26th at 8pm at Koerner Hall Philippe Jaroussky is appearing with Ensemble Artaserse.  It’s a rare chance to hear somewhat controversial countertemor Jaroussky sing with orchestra in an ideal venue.  The concert includes works by a range of baroque composers.  Some of the material is relatively familiar; “Cara sposa” from Rinaldo for example, but much is by less well known composers such as Hasse and Ferrandini.  Artaserse Ensemble is a leading period instrument band that, besides Jaroussky, has appeared with such singers as Cecilia Bartoli and Andreas Scholl.
  • October 27th – 30th at Alliance Française it’s Tapestry’s Tapestry Briefs: Les Shorts qui chantent.  This will showcase scenes created at the very first bi-lingual LibLab.  Direction is by Tim Albery.
  • October 26th to November 12th at Hart House Theatre, Howland Company and Hart House Theatre have a modern adaptation by Paolo Santalucia of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
  • November 3rd at 5.30pm it’s Centre Stage at the Four Season’s Centre, live for the first time in a while.  It’s the usual format; cocktails and snacks, a competition for aspiring voices and, for the well heeled, an on-stage dinner.

If you are buying tickets look out for deals.  There’s a fair bit of discounting going on.  Some shows have clearly sold very well but others not so much.  The post pandemic bounce back looks a bit anaemic right now.